Innocuous things that make you irrationally angry (a list thread)

word just set my whole very obviously chinese document to japanese.

re: the recapping the sporting events the next day at work, this has basically made me not watch very many sports any more. I got so tired of hearing co-workers saying the exact same things that the talking heads on ESPN have said ad nauseum about the games. You do not have any original insight into this game!! Why do you keep repeating the same thing over and over!!! Now I've taken to saying that I don't really watch sports and also that I don't have cable and couldn't see the game.

Speaking of Boston, I'm not looking forward to that next week at work either. Since I was there all week and am a runner, EVERYONE is going to ask me the same thing about where was I/what did I do/how did I get out/were my friends effected/etc. I need to come up with some short spiel so I can just say it and be done.

I'm also just going to print out this map that shows my relative locations at the time of the major events, so I won't have to try and explain it each time. I'll just hand them out to people as they come in the door.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8244/8664345315_48e0947807_b.jpg

I don't even mind small talk so much as I mind the kind of small talk that feels like it's always already been said

I don't even mind being the 300th person that day to go "great/lousy weather, huh" but feeling obliged to make some trite observation abt "terrible business over in Boston" or "how about that World Cup final" is p. awkward, yes. especially with disaster-type events where you don't know if the person you're talking to might have family near there or be quietly judging you for being too detached or not detached enough or w/e

xpost but ... how could you be in two places at the same time !?!??!

i srsly want to fist-bump you 4 this

― jaymc, Saturday, April 20, 2013 1:47 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha, I figured you'd sympathize.

It is scary what you can gleam from those pages. I had to start off with the age these people were when we first wrote about them, sometimes more than 20 years ago. One of my responsibilities was to get their current age. So, you'd say, ok, just add 20 years or whatever to the age they were then. Except here it is April and they were originally written about in July. Were they 35 going on 36 then, or had they already had their birthday for the year?

LinkedIn worked sometimes. Other times, I'd go to their Facebook (if they had one.) Even if their birthday wasn't listed, if their timeline was public, I could usually scroll through it and hit the "Hey, everyone, thanks for all the birthday wishes today!" post.

When those two failed me, I found that mylife.com would give the year they were born and zabasearch would list their age. I still wouldn't have a birthday, but at least I could tell whether they had had their birthday this year or not.

Here's one I just confronted head-on:

So I am fixing a glass of ice water, open the fridge, and the way we do it is we have a bowl that holds a store of ice cubes, plus two trays that are filled w water to make the cubes. The bowl is empty, and when I take out the ice trays to make some more cubes, it is half-filled, like someone went in and selectively took out 5 individual ice cubes.

Why didn't they just dump out the whole tray? I guess that would necessitate a trip 10 feet to the sink to fill it up. Plus those other ice cubes would be used by other people, so really why bother?

last place i lived the other bloke there would use 5 cubes and then immediately refill the gaps - no way of getting at the remaining cubes without getting freezing cold water all over yourself...

honestly, I dread "doing a Google search" for anything anymore, because I know there will be so many dead ends and bullshit links to sift through.

― The Great Natterer (dandydonweiner), Friday, April 19, 2013 12:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

9/10ths of the first 8 pages are going to be intellus radaris and mylife stuff anyway.

― pplains, Friday, April 19, 2013 1:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

next big google labs innovation will be a bigass button you click to make it search for real shit written by people instead of empty web 2.0 halls of mirrors

- the "some people also died in [insert country] too" point-scoring rubbish on Facebook/Twitter that accompanies an American tragedy dominating the news. Like I get your point but you did not say a fucking thing about those people until America got bombed and now you're using them to give yourself a pat on your self-righteous back.

their point is that they're sick of the cultural elitism (mainly coming from people who are not american but have a disproportionate view of world affairs because hollywood)

our press was all 'BOSTON GUY DETAINED/KILLED/WHATEVER' in five billion pt font (without mentioning the country (q.v. cultural elitism practised by people who are not even american (q.v. hollywood))) and down the page in the 'other shit' section there was an 'oh btw like 200 people died in some earthquake in china but it's china so' panel

Boston Globe has gone back behind the paywall. I wonder how much their traffic increased this past week and how many of those people signed up for subscriptions to get news this week.

Wrong thread.

That's what you guys get for talking about explosions in IA threads.

Save $1.00 when you buy 10 Yoplait yogurts.

If you think I'm going through the time to cut out this tiny coupon to score ten cents off yogurt while buying at least six more than I need, you have way misunderstood your marketing guy.

And Almanac, think about how they must feel in Texas. A silo explodes, killing 14 and nearly leveling the town, and all they hear about is the lower amount of fatalities in that big East Coast city.

xp similar: 4¢ a litre off petrol! how much is petrol? $1.57 a litre. um.

our press was all 'BOSTON GUY DETAINED/KILLED/WHATEVER' in five billion pt font (without mentioning the country (q.v. cultural elitism practised by people who are not even american (q.v. hollywood))) and down the page in the 'other shit' section there was an 'oh btw like 200 people died in some earthquake in china but it's china so' panel

― we're up all night to eat biscuits (Autumn Almanac), Monday, April 22, 2013 6:51 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this doesn't make me angry at all, it seems quite natural.

Save $1.00 when you buy 10 Yoplait yogurts.

If you think I'm going through the time to cut out this tiny coupon to score ten cents off yogurt while buying at least six more than I need, you have way misunderstood your marketing guy.

― pplains, Monday, April 22, 2013 9:19 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the whole idea of coupons makes me angry now that I've seen how Costco does it, which is that you don't need the fucking coupon they just give you the discount. Such a waste of paper and effort.

btw 17 people also just died in a boat sinking in Indonesia where is your sympathy you elitist?

this doesn't make me angry at all, it seems quite natural

I'll give you natural in the US, tho i'd probly wanna quibble if i was in the mood, but i don't think it's natural for non-US news sources?

If the people on my feed with family in places where drone strikes happen want to post about middle east casualties in the context of Boston, fine. Rather them than idiot American crypto-authoritarians giving out nothing but jingoistic sadface.

Social media users who combine a whiney, needy writing style with the Monsanto graf where apparently that corporation owns everything: please pass me the tranquilizer dart guns and a Snopes link, STAT.

Assuming AA is in the UK, terrorism stories relating to the US are going to play big there because of various links over the last decade between terrorism in the US and UK, even if this particular incident happens to be lone wolves. Also, took place at an international event, and was a somewhat more captivating and unusual story than an earthquake. If sheer body count were the basis for reporting, there would be an above-the-fold front page headline every day about cancer.

AA is in Australia.

AA is nearer to China than he is the USA.

it's a different thing to say that news agendas are understandable than to say that they're natural. i don't see anything natural about the assumption that "we" are inevitable more interested in stories about "people like us"

- the "some people also died in [insert country] too" point-scoring rubbish on Facebook/Twitter that accompanies an American tragedy dominating the news

Did not know about this. It's genuinely disturbing.

pplains: solidarity 4 eva re: coupons

ffffuuuuck your tiny savings

like, good coupons I'm down with. but especially $afeway and their automatically spat-out coupons are suuuuch a waste of time. and it's such a dumb postscript because their club discounts are often pretty good. we don't need your retarded coupons!

Similarly: when clothing retailers have "sales" that require you to spend a bunch of money to get the savings (like, spend $100, get $15 off).

agreed.

Only worth it when you're spending $60 at Ikea and they reduce by, say, $25. It's like getting free light bulbs and basic tableware.

we don't need your retarded coupons!

http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/-YfXvGYexts/hqdefault.jpg

lol

Shops, especially clothes shops, that don't have price tags on anything. So then you have to ask, and then they know you're interested and start making conversation and then you've felt almost obliged not to leave empty handed so you en up buying something you didn't know the price of.

Is that a UK thing? I've never seen that in the US.

omga, another IA this morning

misdirected emails I have this one woman who KEEPS copying me on her stupid bullshit she sends to her friends.

I have told her three times now that I am not whom you are seeking and yes it's very funny that your friend and I share the same name but GODDAMMIT WOULD YOU GET LOST and every time she says oh sorry yes sure and then a week or two later here she is back again

I guess I need to figure out how to block her now

Xpost it's not that common but I've noticed it in 'boutique' style independent clothes shops.

I just went to lunch with my dad and each time at this place, I forget they write out your order on the slip and then just leave a copy of the slip on the table as your ticket.

No prices on the ticket, just "CC n/o, 14 T ff 1C 1P." How much to tip? Well let's all get the menus back out and study the prices together, that seems to be the best way.

omg that would drive me insane

PP, so it's California cheeseburger, no onions, something tuna, french fries, Coke, and a Pepsi?

chicken chimichanga, no onions, No. 14 taco, french fries, 1 coke, 1 punch.

Suzy goes to those fancy places that serve both Coke and Pepsi.

punch????????????? You can order punch at a restaurant?

"quite a soda list they've got here"

Listen, the place we went today was a Mexican restaurant, but I made up the no onions and the french fries on my list, just for illustrative purposes.

But yeah, you can get homemade punch pretty much in any Mexican restaurant around town.

LOL, it was obvious I was going to translate that into dinerese because what decent 'Mexican' place serves french fries? Also, mostly I go to places which are like 'grab your chosen can out of the tall fridge over there'.

There are a few Mexican places that sell burger and fries, usually on the kids menu for picky eaters.

But Coke and Pepsi happening at the same place? That'll be the day.

A lot of taquerias/burrito places around here serve french fries. There was a place in my old building that had a burrito and french fry combo special.

yeah I was gonna say lots of mexican-for-mexicans places serve french fries